CAASPP Update, Issue 207

Focusing on the CAASPP System, including the Smarter Balanced assessments—a major component of CAASPP—and the California Alternate Assessments and science assessments.

No STAIRS Reports for Accidental Access to Summative Assessments

Accidental access to a summative assessment by a student who has a parent/guardian exemption (PGE) or is an English learner who has been in the country for less than 12 months (NEL) should not be reported in the Security and Test Administration Incident Reporting System (STAIRS). The California Department of Education will not grant appeals for tests related to PGE and NEL cases, which are handled as follows:

PGE—The Test Operations Management System (TOMS) will allow the student's record to be marked as PGE on the “Student Score Status” tab in TOMS as long as the student has not submitted both the computer assisted test (CAT) and the performance task (PT) for that subject area. If a parent or guardian submits an exemption request after testing has begun, any tests completed before the submission of that request will be scored, and the results will be reported to the parent or guardian and included in the student's records.

NEL—Unless the student has taken both parts of a test (CAT and PT), the student’s score will not be used for federal accountability purposes. The system will eventually flag the test with the code “NEL,” indicating that the test taker is an English learner in a U.S. school for less than 12 months. The score will be excluded from the aggregate calculations.

Reminder: Complete CAST Survey After Test Administration

As testing wraps up at your local educational agency, please remember to complete the test administrator general survey for the California Science Test (CAST) pilot. Responses gathered from this survey will assist us in the continuous development and improvement of the CAST. The online CAST Test Administrator Survey
must be completed before July 17, 2017. Thank you!

Please share this email with any educators in your local educational agency who would be interested in or benefit from this information. To join the email list, send a blank message to subscribe-caaspp@mlist.cde.ca.gov. Are you a new subscriber? Visit the CDE CAASPP Update web page to find previous issues.

High School Equivalency Test Fee Waivers (added 14-Aug-2019)
Waiving of Testing Fees for Homeless Youths and Foster Youths Taking the Fee-based High School Proficiency and High School Equivalency Tests.